It's easy to believe that as advisors, we get paid to have all the answers.We feel like to add value, we need to be able to tell people what to do.What if instead, our value came from things like:Asking good questionsHaving good tasteRunning ideas through your filtersPattern matching against your experienceCreating visions to considerClarifying ideas that aren't well-consideredBeing an encourager of good ideasWrestling with optionsLooking at things from different perspectivesPlaying devil's advocatePushing people out of their comfort zoneAs technicians, we like knowing the best tool or tactic to use for any situation. As creatives, we like envisioning new ideas and potential futures.But as advisors, what if we didn't feel like we needed to have all answers, and instead helped our clients explore options until the answers became a little more obvious?Your value isn't having all the answers. Your value comes from helping your clients make good decisions.There are a lot of ways to get a result. The key is helping your clients choose the right way for them.Listen to this episode or subscribe via your podcast player.—kwP.S. REGISTER FOR THE UPCOMING WORKSHOPNext week (January 25 at 11:00 am EST) I'm hosting a live 90-minute workshop (with the recording made available) on how to package, price, and sell custom consulting services. We'll go deep on creating custom proposals that convert, so don't miss this one.REGISTER NOW

Former VP of Marketing at Buffer and current Senior VP of Marketing at Oyster, Kevan Lee shares his insights on advisory work, mentorship, equity compensation, and more. He discusses his approach to advisory work while having a full-time gig, his pricing strategies, and his experience with equity compensation discussions. Kevan also talks about packaging his ideas into a playbook for his paying subscribers and the importance of mentorship in advisory work.

You may be a rock star when it comes to marketing your clients' business. But when it comes to your own, it might be an entirely different story. And you know what? That doesn't make you a bad marketer. It's incredibly hard to market yourself—especially if you don't have a system to follow.In this episode, I break down the three core pillars to attracting more clients:Looking good "on paper" to your ideal clientsHaving somewhere to invite people back toOpening conversations and fostering relationshipsThis might seem simple, and it is. But it's not easy. It takes time, energy, and commitment to build it out and for it to start working for you.But with any luck, this framework (and the details I talk about in the episode) will make attracting clients a lot easier. When you have clarity, you can really lean into your efforts and start seeing traction faster than simply winging it.Listen to this episode for all the nuances and details.—k

What if the way to get your emails read and subscribers to stay subscribed was to lower the bar a little?Not in terms of quality, necessarily. But in terms of format or type.Instead of trying to write a grand theory of mathematics every time you publish, what if we treated email more like social media?What if we aimed for a simple, concise, interesting, and/or fun piece of content?Something light and consumable. Not overthought. Not pre-judged. Just something you found interesting or valuable.Would you be able to be consistent with your publishing habits? Would your readers prefer it? Would it keep you interested?I think yes. But there's nuance, as with all things.So give this a listen. See if it resonates with your headspace.See if it helps you overcome that mental block stopping you from sharing your ideas with your subscribers.And while you're at it, subscribe to Mindshare Radio via your podcast player to get more ideas like this (and interviews coming soon).—k

The most successful businesses have a high degree of customer-centricity. Think Amazon or Google—they're absolutely relentless about the customer experience.And in the consulting world, the most successful advisors are the ones who have a high customer-centricity and low self-orientation.Not sure what this all means? In this episode, I break down how to put your client at the epicentre of your business, how to reduce your self-orientation, and the trade-offs needed to do all of this well.

The odds of you succeeding with new ventures or ideas out of the gate is low. It’s not fun but it’s true.Even if your idea is good, it might be adjacent to the one the market wants. A small set of tweaks and iterations to the format, offer, or audience might just be what it needs to take off.And that’s empowering! It means you’re not alone. Nobody figures everything out right away.It’s easy to get frustrated when things aren’t clicking for you—especially when you’re trying something new that you feel really passionate about.It can feel like two steps forward and one step back. We look around for answers but get frustrated when nobody offers the magic pill.There is no magic pill, only iteration and innovation.We have to hold our vision strong while simultaneously being loose about our best ideas. It’s a fine line between a steadfast vision and being oblivious to what the market wants.If you are willing to iterate and innovate continually, it’s only a matter of time before your vision and what your audience wants are in complete alignment.Listen in for more on this topic if you’re in this mode or subscribe via your podcast player.

Do you ever stop to wonder what it is we are really selling as consultants? Are we selling a website, strategy, or brand identity? Yes... and no. Those are features of our work. And people don't really buy features.Maybe we are selling new customer growth? Better retention? Ease of use? Those are all great benefits of our work. But let's dig a little deeper. What is the emotion behind those benefits? What feeling are we really creating with our work?People buy based on how they feel about the purchase. It aligns with logic, yes. But it's driven by emotion. So it makes sense to explore that emotion people are really seeking inside of what we sell. I believe most consultants are selling confidence. Give this a listen to see what I mean. Get this right and it will be a lot easier to create and sell the true benefits of your work.—k

It's incredibly easy to get sucked into being an employee-like figure when you do fractional leadership work.When I first got started as a fractional CMO, I basically had two part-time jobs. The money was good but I worked HARD. I knew I needed to create better parameters.In this episode of Mindshare Radio, I'll break down the five main ways to avoid turning into a set of employee-like hands when you sell fractional CXO services.We'll talk about things like:Setting expectations during salesDefining what you will or won't doBuilding your RolodexSetting a limit on your time if neededDown-selling yourself to pure advisory workAnd a ton of nuance in between.Listen in and let me know what you think—did I miss anything important?Hit reply and let me know.—kP.S. Need help transitioning into advisory/fractional CXO work? Check out my Paid to Think program or join Mindtrust, the no-brainer group coaching and training program for as little as $63/mo. when you pay annually.

This post originally appeared at https://kevin.me/waysYou can think about niching in a lot of ways.In many cases, the tighter you go, the easier it can be to sell what you offer. People are swimming in options, they want specific when they can get it.So there are two angles to consider when deciding on how specific you should go with your business.1. You can get specific about who you serveThe more specific your target market, the broader your focus can be in terms of what you help people with—while still being credible.If I help multi-location coworking spaces do better marketing, that's a specific target market and a fairly broad way of helping them. It can be reasoned that you can have rare knowledge about marketing in a way that is uniquely applied to multi-location coworking spaces.If I said I help anyone do better marketing at scale, you can begin to see where the skepticism may come in.2. You can get specific about the problem you solveWhen you're highly specific about the problem you solve, it makes sense that you could solve it credibly for a wide range of industries.For example, I could say I help people sell their expertise through membership programs. And that could be a reasonably credible positioning given the specificity of the problem being solved.I don't need to say "I help faith-based dog groomers sell membership programs." The market would be too small. And the same skills or lessons could be applied to far greater contexts.And this is what strategy is all about.There's no perfect way to position your consulting business. Specificity helps—but how you apply specificity is where the hard choices are made.So what trade-offs are you making? How are you being specific about either what you do or who you do it for?As they say, hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.

I don't position myself as a fractional CMO.I might have a fractional CMO service. Or in a sales conversation, I may say that I'm like having a part-time CMO on your team. But I don't call myself a fractional CMO as my top-level positioning.I'm a consultant. I'm an advisor. I help companies with their marketing strategy.But I'm not a part-time employee. I don't want to be seen as one. Nor do I want their actual marketing team to be threatened by what may seem like a new boss breathing down their neck.In this episode, I go into:Why I believe it's best to position yourself as a consultant—not an employee-like personWhen to use terms like "fractional CMO" in your sales conversations and marketing copyHow to avoid threatening the in-house marketing managers when you're hired to help their organization.The topic is nuanced, but I think it's important if you are selling strategic advisory services.